Back cover of dust jacket is a text wall that starts with “GEORGE ORWELL died suddenly in the winter of 1949-50.” followed by various tributes to the man. [2+]

Publication History

George Orwell (pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) wrote the bulk of Nineteen Eighty-Four from early 1947 to late 1948, right at the end of his life. At the time, he was suffering from TB as well as severe side effects from the drugs he was taking to treat it. He wrote and edited fervently to be able to deliver the finished work to his publisher Fred Warburg on-time in mid-December, 1948. The book was published by Secker & Warburg on June 8th, 1949 for 10s. in a print run of 26,575. Five days later the US version was printed by Harcourt, Brace, and Co. in a print run of ~25,000. Orwell died January 21st, 1950 at age 46; he did not live to see a second printing.